Category Archives: Immortality Medicine

AMONG English anthems of the 20th century, Gerald Finzis Lo, the full, final sacrifice stands out. It celebrates the eucharist, and the feast of Corpus Christi, which we mark on Thursday. The anthem may sound supremely English, but some sleuthing reveals a history that is as much Italian as English, taking in Orvieto and Loreto, as well as Cambridge and Northampton.

Gerald Raphael Finzi (1901-56) composed the anthem to mark the 53rd anniversary, in 1946, of the consecration of St Matthews, Northampton. The Vicar, Walter Hussey, had form, having commissioned Benjamin Brittens Rejoice in the Lamb three years earlier.

Finzi was an unusual choice, known not particularly for church music, but for his masterful song cycles and works for small orchestra in the English pastoral style. Few British composers surpass him in setting words to music, and a more densely theological set of words we could hardly find than Lo, the full, final sacrifice: the creed sounds prosaic in comparison.

The text is Finzis own patchwork, drawn from two poems by Richard Crashaw (c.1612-49), an English metaphysical poet with Continental Baroque leanings. Crashaw based the poems on hymns by St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74): Lauda, Sion and Adoro te devote. This is what takes us to Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV had commissioned Aquinas to compose the liturgy for the new feast of Corpus Christi. The words of the anthem come to us by a roundabout route: Finzis reassembly of Crashaws fantasias on hymns by Aquinas.

THE Finzi-Crashaw-Aquinas text starts with the sacrifice of Christ, which it explores through typology by reading Old Testament characters and stories as prefigurements (or figures) of Christ:

Lo, the full, final sacrifice On which all figures fixd their eyes, The ransomd Isaac, and his ram; The Manna, and the Paschal lamb.

These examples Isaac, the ram, the manna, and the lamb come from Aquinas, but the outlandish claim that they each fixd their eyes on Christ and his offering is all Crashaws own. It seems that Christs sacrifice so animates the story of redemption that even the non-human animals even that bread gain personhood in the process, and are able to look to Christ. And so do we, our gaze drawn in by that first, attention-grabbing word, Lo.

Eucharistic theology is contested territory among Christians, but Crashaws poetry builds bridges, a testament to a life that crossed traditions. He was born the son of a Puritan anti-Catholic polemicist, but found his poetic voice as an undergraduate under High Church Laudian influence.

Later a Cambridge Fellow, Anglican priest, and Vicar of Little St Marys, Crashaw ended his life in the Roman Catholic Church, as a priest at the shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, having fled to Italy when Cromwell seized power in England.

Perhaps shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, Crashaws reworking of Aquinas shows that the sacrificial aspect of the eucharist is not in conflict with the one oblation of himself once offered of Calvary. The eucharist brings that one sacrifice before us: already made, but for ever pleaded.

THE text, as we might expect, goes on to circle around bread and wine, and body and blood. Given the emphasis on sacrifice, blood is associated with purification. In Aquinass hymn, a single drop of Christs blood could free the whole world from its sin. Crashaw turned that idea inward, applying it to himself: those drops sovereign be To wash my worlds of sins from me.

Blood also stands for nourishment here, almost as if Crashaw knew about blood transfusions a few centuries early. We might be used to the symbolism of hearts that spurt blood, but, again, Crashaw turns things around: his bleeding heart gasps for blood.

Then there is the image of the pelican, again Crashaws own the soft self-wounding Pelican thought by medievals to feed its young with its own blood. Anglican hymn-books tend to omit the verse about the pelican from Aquinass Adoro te devote, which is a shame. The image of the pelican cheerfully survived the Reformation for instance, in the arms granted to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as late as 1570. And Elizabeth I is seen wearing a brooch depicting a pelican feeding her young, in a portrait of about 1575.

In the third invocation of blood, Crashaw asks that those who drink from the chalice may be Convictors of thine own full cup, Coheirs of Saints: Christs followers share with him not only in the eucharistic cup, but also in the cup of his sufferings. It is all impeccably biblical (1 Corinthians 10.16; Mark 10.37-40; 1 Peter 4.12-19).

Returning to bread, and an echo of the just-concluded Easter season, the anthems text reminds us that the eucharist is life-giving because this is living bread: it is a participation in his body, not dead but risen. St Ignatius of Antioch, who died c.108, called it the medicine of immortality. Crashaw salutes it in similar terms:

Richard Greatrex puts a new metrical Psalter through its paces

O dear Memorial of that Death Which lives still, and allows us breath! Rich, Royal food! Bountiful Bread! Whose use denies us to the dead.

There will come a time, all the same, when sacraments will cease (as W. H. Turtons hymn has it). For now, we have those means of grace; then we will see face to face. Earthly travellers are sustained with bread (and wine), and they receive Christ in the same way: we live by eating.

Those whose journey is complete are sustained by the sight of God. With characteristic daring, in a collision of ideas, Crashaw calls Christ both our shepherd and our pasture, and suggests that, in the life of the world to come, we will feed of Thee in thine own Face.

In the eucharistic processions of Corpus Christi, the bread given to be eaten, for sure is held up for all to see. In the life to come, seeing itself will be our eating.

CRASHAW ends by looking forward to the time When Glorys sun faiths shades shall chase And for thy veil give me thy Face. But, before that conclusion, Crashaw offers one final, magical transposition.

Aquinas wrote only of a desire to see Christs face; Crashaw asks both to see Christ, and also to be seen by him: not just to see Jesus, but to see his eyes. There is a parallel in the way in which Jesus switches from again a little while, and you will see me, in John 16, to I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.

Come, love! Come, Lord! and that long day For which I languish, come away. When this dry soul those eyes shall see, And drink the unseald source of thee.

The Revd Dr Andrew Davison is the Starbridge Lecturer in Theology and Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and the author of Why Sacraments? (SPCK, 2013).

Read more:
Lo, the full, final sacrifice - Church Times

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The life and curiosity of Sir Hans Sloane - The Economist

Adelaide E. Mullen, daughter of William and Elsie Dyke, was born in Regina Saskatchewan, Canada on Nov. 19th, 1939, and was baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit on December 10th, 1939. She confessed her baptismal faith in the rite of Confirmation on September 7th, 1952, and received the medicine of immortality, Christs life-giving Body and Blood.

Adelaide was joined together in holy matrimony to Peter on August 20th, 1972. On May 31st, 2017, Adelaide, at the age of 77, fell asleep in Jesus. She is survived by her husband, Peter, her brothers, Gerry and Lorne, and her sisters, Gertie and Marlene.

Adelaide worked for many years in intensive care nursing, always seeking to serve where people needed the most care. At home, she loved to play the piano, to sing, and was a vigorous reader. She will be deeply missed by all those whose lives she has touched.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the Name of the Lord. We give thanks to God our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord, for our sister, Adelaide.

Her visiting hours will be held on Tuesday from 4 - 7 p.m. in the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett. Her funeral service will be held on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Lutheran Church of The Way, 110 Robinson St., Raynham. Burial will follow in Pine Grove Cemetery, Westboro. For directions and guestbook, please visit http://www.saundersdwyer.com.

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Adelaide Mullen, 77 - Sippican Week

Pope Francis waves at the end of a mass of Pentecost in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican June 4, 2017 - REUTERS

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has issued his Message for World Mission Sunday, 2017, which is focused onMission at the Heart of the Christian Faith. World Mission Sunday is marked each year in October, and this year is on October 22nd.

Please find the full text of the Holy Father's Message, below...

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Mission at the heart of the Christian faith

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Once again this year, World Mission Day gathers us around the person of Jesus, the very first and greatest evangelizer (PAUL VI,Evangelii Nuntiandi, 7), who continually sends us forth to proclaim the Gospel of the love of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. This Day invites us to reflect anew on themission at the heart of the Christian faith. The Church is missionary by nature; otherwise, she would no longer be the Church of Christ, but one group among many others that soon end up serving their purpose and passing away. So it is important to ask ourselves certain questions about our Christian identity and our responsibility as believers in a world marked by confusion, disappointment and frustration, and torn by numerous fratricidal wars that unjustly target the innocent. What is thebasisof our mission? What is theheartof our mission? What are theessential approacheswe need to take in carrying out our mission?

Mission and the transformative power of the Gospel of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life

1. The Churchs mission, directed to all men and women of good will, is based on the transformative power of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News filled with contagious joy, for it contains and offers new life: the life of the Risen Christ who, by bestowing his life-giving Spirit, becomes for us the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf.Jn14:6). He is theWaywho invites us to follow him with confidence and courage. In following Jesus as ourWay, we experienceTruthand receive hisLife, which is fullness of communion with God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. That life sets us free from every kind of selfishness, and is a source of creativity in love.

2. God the Father desires this existential transformation of his sons and daughters, a transformation that finds expression in worship in spirit and truth (cf.Jn4:23-24), through a life guided by the Holy Spirit in imitation of Jesus the Son to the glory of God the Father. The glory of God is the living man (IRENAEUS,Adversus HaeresesIV, 20, 7). The preaching of the Gospel thus becomes a vital and effective word that accomplishes what it proclaims (cf.Is55:10-11): Jesus Christ, who constantly takes flesh in every human situation (cf.Jn1:14).

Mission and thekairosof Christ

3. The Churchs mission, then, is not to spread a religious ideology, much less to propose a lofty ethical teaching. Many movements throughout the world inspire high ideals or ways to live a meaningful life. Through the mission of the Church, Jesus Christ himself continues to evangelize and act; her mission thus makes present in history thekairos, the favourable time of salvation. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, the risen Jesus becomes our contemporary, so that those who welcome him with faith and love can experience the transforming power of his Spirit, who makes humanity and creation fruitful, even as the rain does with the earth. His resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force (Evangelii Gaudium, 276).

4. Let us never forget that being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction (BENEDICT XVI,Deus Caritas Est, 1). The Gospel is a Person who continually offers himself and constantly invites those who receive him with humble and religious faith to share his life by an effective participation in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection. ThroughBaptism, the Gospel becomes a source of new life, freed of the dominion of sin, enlightened and transformed by the Holy Spirit. ThroughConfirmation, it becomes a fortifying anointing that, through the same Spirit, points out new ways and strategies for witness and accompaniment. Through theEucharist, it becomes food for new life, a medicine of immortality (IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH,Ad Ephesios, 20, 2).

5. The world vitally needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the Church, Christ continues his mission as theGood Samaritan, caring for the bleeding wounds of humanity, and asGood Shepherd, constantly seeking out those who wander along winding paths that lead nowhere. Thank God, many significant experiences continue to testify to the transformative power of the Gospel. I think of the gesture of the Dinka student who, at the cost of his own life, protected a student from the enemy Nuer tribe who was about to be killed. I think of that Eucharistic celebration in Kitgum, in northern Uganda, where, after brutal massacres by a rebel group, a missionary made the people repeat the words of Jesus on the cross: My God, My God, why have you abandoned me? as an expression of the desperate cry of the brothers and sisters of the crucified Lord. For the people, that celebration was an immense source of consolation and courage. We can think too of countless testimonies to how the Gospel helps to overcome narrowness, conflict, racism, tribalism, and to promote everywhere, and among all, reconciliation, fraternity, and sharing.

Mission inspires a spirituality of constant exodus, pilgrimage, and exile

6. The Churchs mission is enlivened by a spirituality ofconstant exodus. We are challenged to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 20). The Churchs mission impels us to undertake aconstant pilgrimageacross the various deserts of life, through the different experiences of hunger and thirst for truth and justice. The Churchs mission inspires a sense ofconstant exile, to make us aware, in our thirst for the infinite, that we are exiles journeying towards our final home, poised between the already and not yet of the Kingdom of Heaven.

7. Mission reminds the Church that she is not an end unto herself, but a humble instrument and mediation of the Kingdom. A self-referential Church, one content with earthly success, is not the Church of Christ, his crucified and glorious Body. That is why we should prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security (ibid., 49).

Young people, the hope of mission

8. Young people are the hope of mission. The person of Jesus Christ and the Good News he proclaimed continue to attract many young people. They seek ways to put themselves with courage and enthusiasm at the service of humanity. There are many young people who offer their solidarity in the face of the evils of the world and engage in various forms of militancy and volunteering... How beautiful it is to see that young people are street preachers, joyfully bringing Jesus to every street, every town square and every corner of the earth! (ibid., 106). The next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in 2018 on the themeYoung People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, represents a providential opportunity to involve young people in the shared missionary responsibility that needs their rich imagination and creativity.

The service of the Pontifical Mission Societies

9. The Pontifical Mission Societies are a precious means of awakening in every Christian community a desire to reach beyond its own confines and security in order to proclaim the Gospel to all. In them, thanks to a profound missionary spirituality, nurtured daily, and a constant commitment to raising missionary awareness and enthusiasm, young people, adults, families, priests, bishops and men and women religious work to develop a missionary heart in everyone. World Mission Day, promoted by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, is a good opportunity for enabling the missionary heart of Christian communities to join in prayer, testimony of life and communion of goods, in responding to the vast and pressing needs of evangelization.

Carrying out our mission with Mary, Mother of Evangelization

10. Dear brothers and sisters, in carrying out our mission, let us draw inspiration from Mary, Mother of Evangelization. Moved by the Spirit, she welcomed the Word of life in the depths of her humble faith. May the Virgin Mother help us to say our own yes, conscious of the urgent need to make the Good News of Jesus resound in our time. May she obtain for us renewed zeal in bringing to everyone the Good News of the life that is victorious over death. May she intercede for us so that we can acquire the holy audacity needed to discover new ways to bring the gift of salvation to every man and woman.

From the Vatican, 4 June 2017 Solemnity of Pentecost

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Pope Francis: Message for World Mission Sunday - Vatican Radio

Nanotechnology researchers continue their relentless journey to develop nanobots and they are succeeding. Nanomedicine is using nanobots to cure to cancer. Military nanotechnologies, especially nanobots, will emerge as the defining weapons of the twenty first century.

The United States military already deploys nanoweapons, such as nanotechnology based lasers, toxic nanoparticles, nanoparticle catalysts, and nano electronics. These nanoweapons give the United States significant capabilities in asymmetrical warfare. However, the US militarys greatest quest is the development of nanobots, tiny robots built with nanotechnology.

What is it about nanobots that make them the ideal weapons? Let us address this question by taking several examples. About a third of all US fighter planes today are drones. Todays drones are approximately one-third the size of a manned fighter jet, like the F-35. However, a new class of drones is in development, bird and even insect size drones. For example, in 2014, the Army Research Laboratory announced the creation of a fly drone weighing only a small fraction of a gram. This drone could conceivable fly into an adversarys command post and provide surveillance or into the adversarys dining area to deposit a nano poison. An insect fly drone provides the military with both surveillance and assignation capabilities. This gives a completely new meaning to fly on the wall.

As electronic processors shrink into the nanoscale, becoming nanoprocessors, about 1/1000 the diameter of a human hair, conceivably they could provide the fly drone with artificial intelligence. In effect, it could autonomously carry out its programmed mission.

You may wonder, How does all of this threaten human extinction? To address this question, imagine a scenario where the US military releases millions of artificially intelligent fly drones within an adversarys boarders, programmed to target the populace via commonalities in their DNA. If each fly drone had the capability to assassinate a few people, conceivably they could wipe out an entire nation.

Although this may sound like science fiction, the United States is within a decade of having the capability. The US Army is already testing a fly drone. As for poisons, as little as 100 nano grams of botulism H will kill a human. That quantity of poison is too small to see or taste, yet lethal and small enough for a fly drone to carry. In my book, Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat To Humanity, I classify this type of weapon as a strategic nanoweapon. This classification parallels strategic nuclear weapons that have the capability to destroy nations.

While artificially intelligent insect drones are already a scary proposition, the next step in their development is even more frightening, namely self-replicating insect drones, or more generically self- replicating nanobots. Given the exponential advance in nano electronics and artificial intelligence, characterized by Moores law, it is likely we will see the emergence of self-replicating nanobots in the 2050s.

Self-replicating nanobots are the ultimate invention. In medicine, they will flow through our blood preventing diseases and curing injuries. In military applications, they will have the capability to completely destroy an adversary, from its populace to its structures. This scenario was depicted in the sci-fi movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Strategic nanoweapons, like their nuclear counterparts, pose a threat to humanity. The major issue is control. Will we be able to deploy strategic nanoweapons and maintain control over them? If, for example, we lost control of self-replicating nanobots, we would face a technological plague, one that we currently have no way of stopping.

In a decade, we will see the emergence of nanobots. In medicine, they will cure cancer. In warfare, they may kill millions. In the 2050s, we will see the emergence of self-replicating nanobots. In medicine, they will offer immortality. In warfare, they will pose a threat to humanity.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

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Are Nanoweapons Paving the Road to Human Extinction? - HuffPost

By Caroline Wellbery By Caroline Wellbery June 4 at 7:30 AM

After my father died, I retreated to a place in California Ive long cherished for its peacefulness. On a hike, I took a wrong turn and got caught in an endless thicket of branches and brambles. But I couldnt go back. I could readily see the trailhead below through the thorns. Theres only one way to go, I told myself, and that was forward.

It could hardly be a coincidence that just three weeks earlier, when my father was dying, I had spoken those same words: The only way is the way forward. Like that wrong turn while hiking, my fathers last illness thrust my family and me down a painful path, and we had no choice but to keep going.

My father, so alive, so witty and loving, had been in the middle of a conversation when he had a stroke. Two days later, in the hospital, unable to control his airway because his swallowing muscles were paralyzed from the stroke, he inhaled his secretions and began struggling to breathe.

My dad had always been clear about the circumstances under which he would choose not to live. His wife, my siblings and I knew what he would want us to do. It was a difficult decision, made at a meeting with doctors, hospice nurses and social workers, but a decision without moral ambivalence for any of us: The time had come to stop the antibiotics and IV fluids. In addition, we refused a feeding tube that the doctors had suggested but we knew he would not want. The time had come to let him die.

While morphine eased my fathers breathing, our emotional pain sharpened. His death was now inevitable. Before our decision, he had had a serious bleed in his brain, paralyzing his body and slurring his speech. After our decision, he was bound to die. The difference in trajectory cannot be underestimated. Its the difference between hope and utter resignation.

[They said my dad was having a stroke. I wish Id been able to handle it better.]

My mind played tricks on me as we waited: Isnt there some other way? I kept thinking of Beethoven, who, in his last string quartet, incorporated this question: Does it have to be? He answers straightaway in a determined allegro: Yes, it has to be. The words became a mantra for me: Yes, it has to be. As a doctor, Ive seen so many families struggle to accept similar losses, but now it was my turn to experience the nearly unbearable command of these words.

Grieving begins, really, with the knowledge of our mortality. I had begun preparing for my fathers death. Intellectually vibrant though he was his extraordinary memory a Google for our family he was 94. He would not live forever. This was my experience of the first stage, still full of hope.

The next stage came when I arrived at the hospital on the day of his stroke. As a physician, I knew how bad it was. I saw the CT scan, with what doctors called the moderate-size bleed on the left side of his brain. As he developed complications, my grief intensified. I took in, as though drinking in gulps, his gestures, his nods, his efforts to speak. I took in the smell of his hair, the feel of the bristles of his little mustache. I took in his racing heart, the living warmth of his skin, the squeeze of his hand when he couldnt talk. I took in the single tear that rolled down the side of his face. I took in his breaths. I was fully present during his last moments, as his breathing stuttered and his jaw slackened, as though I were memorizing everything.

Naturally, the grieving continued. Grieving is both universal and unique. The intense cramp around the heart, cries and tears, the waves of sorrow, these are all our common responses to loss. They have a biological feel and cannot be so different from what some animals undergo when they mourn. There is also a strong sense of disbelief that someone who has always been there and has been a reliable part of your life has suddenly vanished forever.

Handbooks on grieving tell you some specific things about losing a parent. For example, a parents death shatters the myth we children nurture of their immortality. So true, in spite of everything I knew about death. I cried: Why did my father have to die at 94? Why couldnt he have lived to 96? Its irrational, but such thoughts make sense in light of our commonly held belief that death, while inevitable, lies somewhere vaguely in the future.

More truisms about parental loss: The death of a father or a mother can leave a person feeling adrift as that last remnant of seemingly supernatural protection breaks loose.

Then theres the accompanying loss of identity. Parents are keepers not only of childhood memories but also of the entire context in which we children grow up, which makes us feel even more bereft when they are gone.

And finally, parents may have been friends and confidants, as my father was to me, especially after my mother died 10 years ago. He and I spoke every night. He infused his attention with an unconditional love impossible to find anywhere else.

My mother had had a stroke years earlier, in exactly the same part of the brain as my father did. At the time, she was in her late 70s, and she survived for seven more years. These were difficult years, spent in a wheelchair, requiring my fathers full-time care. Slowly, imperceptibly, she faded, slipping into ever greater passivity, until in the end an aide dropped her and she didnt survive the fall. Sad as we were, wed all had a long time to prepare.

With my father, it was so different. He was full of plans. He was going to travel with his wife to Europe. He was slated to receive an achievement award in his native Vienna for his scholarly contributions. We were going to meet in California for my beloved retreat at a Zen monastery. We were supposed to enjoy the smell of the Pacific Ocean and walk in the Marin headlands where I ended up hiking alone. He was supposed to stay in the room next to mine. His death was a shock.

My siblings and I grieved his death according to our personalities.

My sister, practical and forward-moving, makes every effort to put aside the painful memories of the hospital as best she can. I, an introvert and a doctor, have immersed myself in them. My brother, who deals with most difficulties by going on long, arduous runs, went running. Uncomfortable expressing emotions, he has avoided the topic of my fathers death. But he also sent me this poem, exploring the conflicts in his relationship with my dad that remained unresolved:

We had no foundation.

I built ruins upon ruins,

that crumbled into dust and blew away

Where shall I lay my weary head?

My house is made of the stuff of dreams,

flitting like ghosts in the sunlight,

dust devils meandering without destination.

The drums of war deep into the night.

Where is our peace?

Three weeks after my fathers death, I went on my hike and got lost. Eventually I emerged from the brush and found the trailhead. I got into the car, returning it on time to the rental place. My arms were scratched up. My legs were black and blue from some falls Id taken.

A few days later, my body erupted in blisters and sores. First the rash appeared on my arms. Then it traveled to my neck and face. It covered my trunk, groin and finally encircled my ankles. I had developed an allergic skin reaction, maybe to some poison oak that I hadnt noticed. The rash was so bad it could only have been invented in hell.

Weeks later, the pain, redness and itch slowly faded away. The memory of it, a reminder that there is no way but forward as painful as that may be, will remain with me always.

Wellbery is a family physician and medical educator at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

[Read more:]

[Dinner-part diagnosis: The occupational hazard of being a doctor]

[This physician wants her patients to use fewer medications]

[]

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We unplugged my father from everything, as he wished, but I wasn't ready to let go - Washington Post

We have long taken it for granted that the rich can privilege their offspring with unearned income on their deaths, subject only to estate duty. Photograph: Alamy

The Oxford professor of gerontology Sarah Harper this week declared that the life expectancy of a British baby born today is an astonishing 104 years. Modern medicine is lengthening the average life span by 15 minutes with every passing hour. Seventy is the new 50. Pensioner marriages aresoaring.

As a result, Harper points out, we are in the crazy situation where the young can be in education right up until their mid-20s, and then retired from their early 60s until their 90s. For over half a lifetime, people will be economically inactive, living off and not contributing to the common weal.

Longevity may be good news for people such as me, who wish, with Woody Allen, to gain immortality by not dying. But someone must pay. For most of history, old age has been a charge on families and local communities. Since there was not much of it about, the burden was sustainable. Todays old people live longer, but they are ever more voracious consumers of health and social care. The cost has been creeping up, the elderly already consuming close to half the NHS budget.

That is why the more I ponder Theresa Mays U-turn on care for the aged the more disastrous it seems. It was not just an election gaffe. It rightly challenged a critical feature of the welfare state; that there should be free care fromcradle to grave. As such it should never have been tossed into the middle of an election campaign, when the merchants of petty populism are in command. In the event, the U-turn has locked down debate for a parliament. As on national insurance, business rates and Hinkley Point, May is emerging not as a strong, stable leader, but as weak and wobbly.

Money for the care of the elderly has to come from somewhere; from general taxation or from the insurance and savings of the elderly themselves. Pundits of the actuarial sciences such as Andrew Dilnot have struggled to find an acceptable mix of subsidy, charging and insurance. None had found favour, until Mays office thought it a good idea to shock the campaign with her dramatic proposal.

She declared that the state would not have a cap on how much private assets should contribute to care costs, and she would expect those assets at risk to include houses. Only a maximum residue of 100,000 would be left in estate hands. In an age of long-term incurable diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons and dementia, she and her advisers felt that to saddle the state with the cost of home care was simply unrealistic. Looking after those unable to look after themselves should revert to being what it was throughout history a family responsibility.

As the health secretary Jeremy Hunt put it: The assets that you build up over your lifetime should be used to pay for your own care costs. Where someone owns a house worth 1m or 2m, and has expensive care costs of perhaps 100,000 or 200,000, he said, it was only fair on other taxpayers for them to bear the burden. It meant that even a house worth the UK average of 218,000 would be at risk of disposal, even if disposal and payment were postponed until after death. To Hunt and May, the rich had saved against a rainy day. When it rains, they should spend.

What baffles me is that May could not see this was ideological dynamite both to the left and the right. It was, first, a substantial act of privatisation, shifting the burden of care from the welfare state to individuals and families, whose estates would be wholly at risk in the case, for instance, of prolonged dementia. It was also a substantial redistribution of wealth. The cost of incapacity in old age would fall on the state only if you were very poor. It could prove a colossal supertax on the rich.

Cynics could see the proposal popularising living wills and giving new urgency to the cause of regulated euthanasia and assisted suicide. Back in the mid-20th century, the distressed aristocracy had to donate their country houses to the National Trust, disinheriting their heirs, if they wanted to go on living in them for life. For the aristocracy, now read the property-owning middle classes; for the National Trust, read at-home care.

Despite decades of intermittent socialism, we have long taken it for granted that the rich can privilege their offspring with unearned income on their deaths, subject only to estate duty. Bequeathing assets is seen as a right attaching to the parent. The child is merely the lucky bystander. Harper points out that life expectancy is changing this. Todays children may not inherit anything until they themselves are pensioners.

Do we really believe that we accumulate savings, not to help ourselves through old age, but to enrich our children?

The trouble for Hunt, as for May, is that generous care in old age may seem unfair and even unsustainable but it is inherent to the NHS. When the explosive reaction duly occurred, Mays U-turn was the more humiliating for her assertion that nothing has changed from the principles on social care policy that we set out on our manifesto. Of course it had. She first said estates would haveopen-ended liability for the cost of elderly care. Now she says they will not. All politicians lie, but they would best not do so with their backs to the wall and the cameras rolling.

The prime minister was indeed brave in opening up a classic area of political reform, plunging into the ideological entrails of Tory privatisers and Labour egalitarians alike. She asked: Do they really think the welfare state can handle life expectancy to 100 free of charge? Do they really expect taxpayers to bear the now soaring burden of long-term care? Do they really believe that we accumulate savings, not to help ourselves through tolerable old age, but simply to enrich our children?

May has proposed a social care green paper. This will have to tackle the fiendishly difficult question of where the new cap will be fixed to place an absolute limit on the amount that people would have to pay. It should also examine the role of estates and inheritance in relieving burdens on the welfare state.

It may be misery for children to watch their future wealth drain away, as their parents fail to die. But that is what families are about. They should accept the risks and hardships that may come with the boon of longer life. Last month, May asked the electorate a challenging question that needed to be asked. Then she lost her nerve.

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We all want to live longer. But someone must pay - The Guardian

BMC Immunology is delighted to announce the launch of a new thematic series: "Cancer Immunotherapy and Vaccines". Here, Guest Editor Francesco Pappalardo gives an introduction to the series and discusses the progress and the difficulties faced by researchers in the field.

Professor Francesco Pappalardo 31 May 2017

Pixabay

Vaccines are the most effective and cost-efficient weapons that can be used to prevent (preventive vaccines) or cure (therapeutic vaccines) diseases caused by infectious agents or cancer cells. Usually, when one thinks about the word vaccine, the first thought that comes into the mind is related to an artificial administration of a stimulus that instructs the immune system to fight against the cause of a particular pathological state (the pathogen). However, in the case of cancer vaccines, the main view, still unknown to the majority of the people not working in the field, is represented by the exploitation of the hosts immune system to treat or prevent cancer. The idea, however, dates back decades.

In the same way a traditional vaccine works, a cancer vaccine can promote the eradication of malignant cells during their initial transformation from safe to harmful cells. This eradication process, commonly referred to as immune surveillance of tumors [1], is carried out by the immune system and, most of the time, it happens without any external intervention. Tumors are the result of a particular combination of factors related to genetic and epigenetic changes that enable immortality.

In the same way a traditional vaccine works, a cancer vaccine can promote the eradication of malignant cells during their initial transformation from safe to harmful cells.

This is not a completely undetectable process: during the transformation of a normal cell into a malignant one, foreign antigens (neo-antigens or, to be more specific, onco-antigens) are created; these should render neoplastic cells visible by the immune system that can target them for elimination. Tumors cells, like every living organisms, want, nevertheless, to live. Hence, tumors try to become resistant and invisible to immune system attacks by developing multiple resistance mechanisms that include local immune evasion, induction of tolerance and systemic interference of T cell signaling. Besides, mimicking the metaphor of Darwins natural selection, immune recognition of cancer cells enforces a selective pressure on developing ones. This favors the development of less immunogenic and more apoptosis-resistant neoplastic cells, through a mechanism well known as immune editing [2].

Due to the fact that cancer cells are particularly good at evading any action from the immune system, most anti-cancer treatments are based on other means like surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Nowadays, however, it is clear that the various arms of the immune system play an essential role in protecting humans from cancer. After unsatisfactory efforts and explicit clinical failures, the field of cancer immunotherapy has received a significant boost, thanks mainlyto the development in 2010of an autologous cellular immunotherapy, sipuleucel-T, for the treatment of prostate cancer [3] and the approval of the anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) antibody ipilimumab (2011) andanti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) antibodies (2014) for the treatment of melanoma [4]. These achievements haverenovated the field and brought attention to the opportunities that immunotherapeutic approaches can offer [5,6].

The field of cancer immunotherapy has recently received a significant boost

Pixabay

There are still, however, some difficulties to be overcome when developing effective immunotherapy strategies against cancer. The general lack of understanding of the mechanisms of immunization, the role of dendritic cells, the ability of cancer to induce tolerance, and the identification of the most suitable antigens to use are just some examples of how the development of effective strategies is still problematic [7-10]. There are several biotechnological methodologies, based on both in silico and in vivo techniques, that study and suggest possible candidates for use in immunotherapies. However, they are not able, on their own, to quantify and analyze the immune system response globally. Moreover, there are now several computational techniques to predict T cell epitopes (and,to some extent, also B cell epitopes) [11,12]. Computational simulations may help in solving these issues, but these need to be integrated with the in vitro and in silico molecular analyses [13,14]. So, a complete computational/biological pipeline that allow the best integration of in silico, in vitro and in vivo methodologies may potentially boost and improve cancer immunotherapy development and effectiveness.

The aim of the thematic series is to bring together the latest advances in both biological and computational research, looking broadly at the basic biological aspects of immunotherapy, emerging immunotherapies (both prophylactic and preventive) and different vaccination approaches. The novel, and, at the same time, established character of computation in immunology greatly improves and speeds-up the development of novel vaccination strategies, both therapeutic and preventive, against cancer. We welcome original research, methodology, software, and database article submissions.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts is 30thNovember2017. For more information, visit the BMC Immunology website.

References

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New Thematic Series for BMC Immunology: Cancer Immunotherapy ... - BMC Blogs Network (blog)

A peacock butterfly and a small tortoiseshell butterfly warm themselves on a buddleia plant. Well, we think it is... Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Can you name a shrub? No Googling, no consulting, Ill give you three seconds, three two one GO!

Ah no, sorry. Thats a tree. Good try though.

Who said buddleia? Well done to you.

Oleander? Five points.

OK, Ill grudgingly accept rose. You could have a shrub rose. I think.

Viburnum, you say? Is that not a percussion instrument? Wait, hang on, let me just look at the no, youre right, you can have viburnum.

If youre currently in a room with four other people, ask if anyone can name a shrub. If more than two of them can, youre in an unusual room. According to a survey by the Royal Horticultural Society, held to mark the opening of the 2017 Chelsea Flower Show, 50% of British adults cannot name a single shrub.

You might think: well, that could just be down to the confusing nomenclature. What is a shrub, what is a bush, what is a tree? Its not that people dont know these plants, they just got stuck on category definitions when put on the spot.

But that doesnt explain it, because 40% couldnt name a household plant either. You cant embarrass yourself on the scientific classification of household plant; thats just any plant you find in a house. Peace lily, rubber plant, cactus, African violet, venus flytrap, those Christmas ones, you know, the red ones. Theyre all house plants. But four out of 10 Brits cant name one.

Also gloomily reported was that a fifth of respondents do not grow anything themselves, indoors or outdoors, of any kind. But surely thats a happy twist in the tale: so four-fifths do! 80% of people are trying to grow something! The extrapolation is that literally millions of us, despite not being able to name any plants, are planting them anyway.

And thats the main thing. I think its enormously important to plant things. Theres an incomparable peace and comfort in watching the cycles of plant life, which is deeply therapeutic if youre actually taking part.

You may say: duh, everybody knows that, its a cliche and doesnt bear mentioning. But Im not so sure. It was also reported, in the roar of garden-themed publicity accompanying this most famous of flower shows, that artificial grass is surging in popularity and Britain is awash with illegal orange petunias.

Did you know orange petunias were illegal? I didnt. Apparently, theyre genetically modified to the extent that we dont know what harm they may do to insect life. Were not supposed to buy them or cultivate them and should contact Defra if we see them on sale.

In the future, they may prove harmless. People may delight in whatever the genetic modification cleverly does: survive winter, grow straighter or withstand drought. But the problem there, like the problem with artificial grass, is that its all about the glory of man. And gardening should be the precise opposite.

The soothing power of flowers and grass lies in the way they come and go and come again; theyre a mortal part of an immortal whole. And thats what you feel like yourself, as you watch their cycles and feel your place within them. The key to natures therapy is feeling like a tiny part of it, not a master over it. Theres amazing pride in seeing a bee land on a flower you planted but thats not your act of creation, its your act of joining in.

This simply doesnt apply if its astroturf. Astroturf is a great idea I believe its better for hockey but if you want to bask in the genius of human invention you might just as well stare at an iPhone. Or the fridge.

Im not a luddite. Science, computers, medicine, theyre all great. But nature is context. That which we cant control. Its constant mortality and immortality is an answer to the terror of finite existence. It reassures the soul.

Thats why I sympathise with 79-year-old Guy and Josie Simmins, whose wheelie bin row has been reported in the national press.

The Simminses must be surprised by the level of interest. In the normal run of things, bins are like farts: were quite interested in our own, irritated by those of our immediate neighbours and simply dont think about ones that happen several counties away.

But people have enjoyed sniggering at the stance of Mr and Mrs Simmins, who, along with other residents of their terraced street in Bath, say the front gardens are too pretty to stand the invasion of council-enforced wheelie bins.

Ho ho, snorts the Twitter generation. Rich mans problems! Terrorism Brexit Syria! #checkyourprivilege hashtag hashtag! (Hashtag is the modern equivalent of rhubarb: a meaningless noise to make when pretending to be a coherent crowd.)

But theyre missing the point. This is a couple, nigh on 80 years old, no doubt as terrified and miserable about the state of everything as the rest of us, who find solace in tending the natural environment around them and want (indeed need) to keep doing so.

I dont know the Simminses but, speaking for myself, the hours I spent obsessively watering plants last week were not about shrinking my attention on to something smaller than the immediate fears and tragedies around us, but trying to invest it in something bigger.

Maybe the Simminses are protecting their connection with the eternal. I might be setting too much store by symbolism, but God knows what happens to the psyche if you spend all day staring at a giant dustbin.

These arent big gardens were talking about. Theyre just little patches of green, lining an ordinary street. No astroturf, no orange petunias, just an ordinary selection of calming, leafy, natural shrubs. I was grateful for mere photographs of them in last weeks horrible newspapers although, of course, I couldnt name any.

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So how does your garden grow? - The Guardian

Men's Health

Cutting Calories Could Drastically Reduce Your Body's Internal Aging Men's Health This most recent find on the search for immortality comes from a review from a set of researchers at Duke University, and was also published in Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. The researchers came to the ...

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Cutting Calories Could Drastically Reduce Your Body's Internal Aging - Men's Health